Pumpkin Fun!

Pumpkin, pumpkin, who has the pumpkin?  I do!  I'm feeling Autumn coming on (or what we get of Autumn in Scottsdale AZ).  To me that means temps drop under 100 and an occasional rainy day but most of all I can tell by the sky.  It grows a deeper shade of blue as the cooler season comes around.

Anyway, I've strayed from my original thought of pumpkins.  Easy to do since I've been locked up in the "studio" for days making these wonderful little treasures!

Velvet pumpkins have always been a favorite of mine.  In fact I keep some of them displayed in my home year around!   I wanted to do something a bit different with my pumpkins.

These beautiful pumpkins were harvested from the silver patch.  They are filled with magic beans, silky soft fluff, fantasies and fairytales!

They are available in my Etsy shop while they last!

An Aqua Kind of Day

Recently we got away to Monterey for a long weekend.  It was so wonderful.  Leaving 113 degree Arizona days for 65 degree Monterey days was Heavenly!  My new batch of soldered bottles remind me of that Heavenly escape!

I mixed things up a bit with this batch of bottles.  While watching TV one evening, I turned to Hubby and said "I wonder, why I don't embellish my art more.  I mean, look around our home, I embellish everything!"  I am so happy I had that thought because I think adding the jewelry to these bottles really makes them beautiful!

These bottles, and more, are now available in my Etsy shop.

Have a beautiful, aqua kind of day!

Book Cover Tutorial

We recently had some beautiful cabinetry installed in our Master.  (Finally I have drawers!)  Anyway, the top portion of cabinetry is shelves.  I wanted to create displays on some of those shelves and incorporate my books but I wanted a cohesive look.  The answer was to cover some of my old books with Kraft paper.  
This is how I did it...

First, gather your tools:  Old books (you can keep existing dust jackets on them and just cover over them or remove the dust jacket), a roll of Kraft paper (or any other paper...you could even use cool shopping bags!) Large ruler, tape measure, pencil and x-acto knife or scissor.

Now, take your book measurements.  Measure top to bottom and distance around.  Mine, shown here, measured about 8 1/2 x 13.

Add a couple inches to all sides and cut the paper to match.  You can see I added about 3 inches  to the top and bottom and about 2 inches to each end.  Next, fold down the top and bottom giving the folds a nice crease.  Top to bottom should be just slightly larger than your book.  Then fold in each end the same way (before creasing you might want to wrap it around your book to be sure the length is comfortable, even when the book is closed.)

Next, slip one side of the book into the cover, then do the same with the other side (you may need to open the book wide to easily insert the second cover without tearing the paper).

No glue, no tape, NOTHING holds the cover on the book? That's right.  It's like magic! But actually you can see here that the folds themselves are what hold the book in place.

And here you have it....

But wait!  I'm not finished....... I really liked the look of all these books stacked together, and I really liked the way the pages were at various stages of "yellow", but being me, and knowing that these books were for decorative purposes, I needed a bit more embellishment.

So I added some decorative tape, found at Michaels.  (You can leave this step off if you want, or you could draw or do some beautiful lettering on the cover.  The options are limitless!)

And ta-da!  A beautiful, inexpensive way to dress up your books!

Oh, BTW, I had an adorable audience during this project.  They were so good, they deserved TWO treats! Good Girls!

Anyway, I love these book covers.  Like I said you could make them out of wrapping paper, Kraft paper, brown paper bags or even out of a cool shopping bag from your favorite mall or store! Great for back to school and a great project to involve your kids, even teens!  As a bonus, it will save the life of those expensive school books!  Who doesn't love that?

I hope you try this great idea.  If you do, share your results with me!  I'd love to see what you come up with!

Summer Obsession

Well, you can see that I haven't been here for a little while.  Sorry.  I'll explain more on that later.

For now, though, I wanted to share with you my new obsession!  I have discovered soldering!  OMG, it is a blast and a fun change from making my dolls.  (I love making my dolls but yearned for something new this summer)

I've been hitting every antique mart that I can find in Arizona and California on the hunt for antique bottles. Even filled an empty suitcase with bottles on our holiday in Monterey.

I've found a lot of really great bottles.  Next I dug through my vast collection of shells and coral.  I have shells from California, Mexico, Florida and beyond!  (just a sample here)

Then the fun began...planning, taping, soldering and applying the patina.  I'm obsessed!

I've placed some of these beautiful creations in my Etsy shop.  Come visit!

Always Time to Create

Hello all!

We've been so busy of late. Moved Mom into an assisted living apartment, moved our company offices and making an effort to clean out Mom's old house. What do you do with 82 years of a woman's possessions?

So I was trying to find a little creative time. I found it was so hard to create a full sized doll when I only had snippets of time.  I started "sketching" little dogs (I use the term "sketch" loosely here). Then thought, what the heck, I'm going to make that "sketch" out of clay and put a little sweater on it. This is what I came up with....

this is "Patches"...

and this is "Stitch"...

Lesson learned...Even when life gets busy, confusing and frustrating, there is always time to create!

Happy Creating!



Snow Angels

Do you love making snow angels?  When I was little, my family lived in New Jersey and before that Chicago.  I remember making snow angels every winter and just loving it!  I could fill up the whole yard with snow angels if Dad would have let me!  

So when I set out to make an angel doll, 
I knew she had to be a snow angel!  

Meet Edwina!

Edwina delights in snowy winter days. She is a perfect little snow angel with her removable feathered wings and snow white dress. Even her sneakers are engraved with snow flakes and she holds a sparkling snowball in a cage.

Edwina is sculpted with layers of Paper Clay and painted with artist acrylics. Her snow white dress is hand stitched from a vintage vanity mat. Her sneakers are sculpted from Polymer clay, her eyes are glass and her hair is mohair.  I added a wire armature to her arms so they are semi-posable and her wings are removable (tied on with baby blue silk ribbons). She is free standing and approximately 7 inches tall. 

SOLD
Thank you Kim!
www.pumpkinheadstudio.etsy.com

A Painting to Share

Wow, I feel so guilty about neglecting this blog for over a month!  That tends to happen this time of year with the holidays rapidly approaching.  This year I'm trying to create a handmade gift for those on my list.  Throw in a couple holiday parties and before you know it time has slipped away.

Anyway I wanted to share with you the painting I created of our little Maggie...

I started with torn pieces of decorative paper.  Simply ripped them into squares and rectangles and attached them as a mosaic on the canvas (this one is 24 x 36) and attached with a gel medium.

Then, after it dried, I sketched the outline of Maggie and used a white Gesso to paint the basic shape.  I used the photo I took of her with her pumpkin as the model.

When that was dried, the fun started.  I painted the background using a wash of green, then added texture using some bubble wrap and an old credit card.  I had actually added a wash of blue on the top portion of the canvas but decided I didn't like it so I just tore up a bit more paper and covered it up.   I used liquid acrylics to layer in Maggie's fur and detail her features.

Finally, I added in some shading, again with liquid acrylics.

This was the largest painting I'd done to date.  It was a lot of fun!   

Have a happy day!